The Truck Industry Council has finally decided to share its sales figures for what it is calling the “Alternative Fuels” sector of the truck and can market.
Although these alternative fuel vehicles are still a small part of the overall sales, they are still clearly growing.
So for 2026 the latest figures show that year to date alternative fuel truck sales across all segments amounts to just 110 units, with total YTD truck sales across all fuels totalling 9,132 vehicles
That means in percentage terms that the alternative fuel sector amounted to just 1.2 per cent of total YTD truck sales.
While penetration of non ICE trucks remain low, the presence of multiple brands across every segment suggests the market has moved past “trial phase” and into early commercialisation.
Light Duty and Vans have been the driving force for alternative fuel adoption so far with YTD Alternative Fuel registrations by segment showing the light duty trucks totalled 74 units or 67 per cent pf the alt fuel segment. Next best was CVans with 22 registrations so far in 2026, which amounts to 20 per cent of the alt fuel sector.
Just four medium duty alternative fuel trucks have been sold so far this year equating to four per cent of the market, while heavy duty alternative power vehicles have been registered which represents nine per cent of the sector.
The key takeaways from this are that 87 per cent of all alternative fuel sales are in light duty and vans while both heavy and medium duty remain niche and project-driven
According to luminaries in the industry this matters because urban delivery, council fleets, utilities, and last‑mile logistics are clearly where electrification is advancing first while infrastructure constraints and duty cycles are still holding back medium and heavy duty.
Foton Mobility so far this year is claiming top spot amongst alternative fuel trucks and vans having registered 54 electric trucks so far year to date. Not far behind is Hino with its hybrid diesel electric 300 series models having registered 41 sales for the first quarter of 2026.
Behind those was Mercedes Benz with a total of 11 battery electric sales so far this year, with Volvo next best having sold nine of its battery electric medium and heavy models, while Chinese maker LDV. has registered eight electric van/light truck sales in the first three months.
This means that Foton Mobility is currently accounting for almost half of all alt‑fuel sales, and this is almost entirely from Light Duty electric trucks.
The most logical reason for this is the Chinese brand’s competitive pricing and its fleet focussed selling, particularly with fleets such as Woolworths Home Delivery.
In terms of the Hybrid vs full electric proposition they both represent two different innovation paths
In fairness Hino stands out as the only OEM selling significant diesel electric hybrids with all other brands in the sector selling 100 per cent battery electric
As Hino have said its hybrid strategy is acting as a transition technology for customers tht are not ready for full BEVs but it seems longer term that pure battery electric is the preferred strategy for new brands and vans
This suggests policy incentives or emissions rules may still reward partial electrification, keeping hybrids viable—especially in regional or mixed‑duty use cases.
In terms of heavy duty electric adoption it is highly uneven with only ten HD alt fuel units registered YTD, with Volvo accounting for seven of the sales, interestingly in the first two months, with none being registered in March, while Mercedes accounted for three electric heavies.
Industry observers say that this signals that at the moment heavy duty electrification is project-led and not demand-led with most orders usually coming in batches and tied to grants, trials, or specific customers, so from this we can expect some month-to-month volatility in this sector.
The numbers also show that there was an acceleration of inter4est in alternative fuels in March with registrations of alt fuel vehicles totally 69 units against the 110 for the year to date at the end of March. That means that 63 per cent of YTD alternative fuel sales occurred in that month alone
Possible drivers for this activity have been indicated as being the start-of-year fleet procurement cycles, incentive deadlines, improved OEM supply availability and early FY26 budget releases
If this trend holds, pundits are saying that 2026 could significantly outperform 2025 even without major policy changes.
What is becoming clear is that this is no longer a “one-brand experiment” with multiple OEMs, multiple fuel strategies and pre3sence in every size and class across all segments.
Industry observers are telling us that buyers are comparing options, and not just trialling concepts while saying that decision‑making has shifted from “can this work?” to “which fits best?”
